The New Girl
by Jujubee1981
Summary: Tom has detoxed Hal, Annie is gone, and Alex has moved into Honolulu Heights. This is a Hal/Alex pairing and I've changed the rating to M because of language and adult themes - just like the show.
1. Chapter 1

Annie always made breakfast.

Hal would descend the stairs at 6:45 each morning and Tom would thunder down sometime after him and…there would be breakfast. Nothing special or complicated. Sometimes it was toast and tea, other times it would stretch to scrambled eggs, some days it was just cereal. But Annie always made sure Hal had an even number of raisins in his Ready Brek and Tom got extra jam on his toast. It was that kind of thing.

Six weeks had passed since the explosion. Hal had been granted qualified freedom by Tom after he regained control of his bloodlust. He was returning to work at the café this morning after a protracted bout of fictional pneumonia.

The household routines had changed around him during the time he spent tied to that kitchen chair in the living room and new routines were born. But mornings still felt wrong.

Hal went downstairs at 6:45 as usual and felt the wrongness. He made his way past the blank kitchen table into the cold, empty kitchen. Everything was dim. No warm scent of tea, no immediate barrage of chatter. He sighed, put on the kettle, and began making instant cereal for Tom and himself.

He took down the box of raisins. Annie always put in twenty. Hal put in twenty. Then he decided on thirty for Tom. He thought Tom might be having one last growth spurt, the way he had been eating lately…

Alex rent-a-ghosted into the kitchen and leaned her hips against a counter. Her preferred method of moving seemed to be transporting herself around to lounge against things. Young women today never seemed to stand up straight. Hal's eyes flickered to her and he went back to counting raisins silently.

"Did you take it in turns to make breakfast before?" Alex inquired, watching his strange ritual unfold. She was understandably curious about the past relationships and arrangements of this little, evolving household.

"No." Hal replied. "Annie kept the house and cooked, mostly."

"So, super ghost powers, gorgeous, _and _a model housewife? You must've loved her." Alex said, casually sarcastic.

"Yes." Hal replied curtly.

"Oh." Alex was taken aback by that. "Sorry." She added, casting down her eyes.

Hal sighed internally. He knew what she must be assuming. Another modern plague on humans – they thought everything was about sex.

Yes, Hal loved Annie. But not in the way John Mitchell had. Hal never felt more than an initial passing male curiosity about what Annie might have had underneath that grey stretchy material. He would be first to say that Annie was a lovely woman, but she'd felt like family to him.

"Nevermind." Hal responded to Alex's apology. He poured some milk over both bowls of cereal and prepared two mugs of tea. He glanced at the clock on the microwave. "Have you seen Tom yet? We'll be late for work." He said to Alex.

Alex vanished. Doors slammed upstairs, voices exchanged conversation, and moments later Alex popped back into the kitchen to slouch in a singularly unladylike manner against the fridge. "He's coming." She announced just as the rumble of Tom's feet shuddered through the house.

"'Ey." Tom greeted as he burst into the kitchen. He saw the food on the counter and took the bowls to the kitchen table as Hal brought the tea. "You make this, mate?" He said to Hal as he plopped himself into a chair and began to eat.

"Such as it is." Hal said, joining him at the table.

Tom blinked. "Thanks." He said.

Hal didn't quite know how to respond to polite thanks for a bowl of instant cereal so he simply nodded and began the tedious process of eating his own breakfast. Each bite had two raisins in it. It didn't taste good. It never did. Chewing and swallowing just helped control his hunger.

"So." Alex said.

Tom turned to her with his usual sweetly attentive expression and Hal frowned at her over the rim of his mug.

"Annie took care of you, eh?" Alex continued.

Tom nodded firmly. "Yup." He said.

"I hope you're not expecting…" Alex began, with a teasing expression.

"We wouldn't dream of imposing on your very busy schedule." Hal said drily, cutting her off.

Alex looked disappointed. It was clear that she wanted to join in, but she wanted to do so under protest. Hal wasn't playing.

Tom looked warily between Hal and Alex.

"Awright?" He said uncertainly.

"I suppose I should do what I can around the house – keep things running." Alex now offered. "S'pose it's what Annie was hoping when she took me under her wing like that."

"Yeah?" Tom said, smiling at her. Hal was silent.

"Well, I have a lot of experience taking care of a houseful of boys." Alex said, warming to the subject. "I make a brilliant fried chop."

Tom's grin widened. "Yeah?" He repeated hopefully.

"Sure. Why not?" Alex said. "Not like I have much else to do with myself."

"What about resolving your unfinished business?" Hal said. It sounded more like a challenge than conversation.

"How do I know my unfinished business isn't frying chops for the vampire who drank my blood?" Alex said, one pretty eyebrow rising saucily at him.

Hal's frown deepened to a glare.

"Oh, don't be such a lemon." Alex scolded, her tone exasperated.

"A _lemon_?" Hal echoed haughtily.

"Yeah. You look like you've sucked on one." Alex said. "Sour puss. I was only joking."

"I'm afraid I don't always understand modern humor." Hal said stiffly.

Alex rolled her eyes and shoved away from the fridge to clear Tom's now-empty bowl and mug. As she did so, she gave Tom's scarred head a gentle tousle with the ease of a woman who is long-used to showing affection to a multitude of rough-and-tumble little brothers. Tom looked paralyzed with happiness. Hal could almost watch Tom actively casting Alex as his new mother.

"Bring home a couple of chops – not _too_ thick, mind – and we'll see if I've still got the touch." Alex told Tom.

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded with an eager smile and pushed back his chair to thunder back upstairs, presumably to shave and brush before work.

Alex looked at Hal pointedly, waiting for his reaction.

"That was kind." Hal murmured.

"Yeah, well. I'm a nice girl, really." Alex said, her eyes sparkling cheekily as ever.

"Tom is a bit of a…lost boy." Hal started.

"I know." Alex said. Her expression became more serious. "I know boys." She explained simply.

Hal nodded with a jerk. "Good." He said. He stood and picked up his own dishes. Alex was there in front of him in an instant, trying to take the bowl and mug from his grasp. "No." Hal said quietly. "You don't have to do anything for me."

"I need something to do." Alex protested. Her fingers brushed against his in a battle for his dishes. They were soft delicate hands and they left a tingly chill where they touched him. His dead heart pounded oddly in his chest and he quickly drew away and put his dishes into the sink.

"If you need something to do then take care of Tom." Hal suggested roughly.

"Okay. And what about you?" Alex said, watching him from those laughing, wise eyes.

"I'm not a lost boy." Hal said. It sounded like a warning.

"Well, we're all a little bit lost, eh?' Alex said softly.

Hal didn't answer. He just turned and began running hot water into the sink and adding soap. He jumped when he felt one of those soft tingly hands come to rest briefly on his left shoulder blade. He turned, shaking off her touch, and stared down at her.

"Budge." Alex ordered gently. "What's done is done. It's as easy to take care of two as one anyhow. Don't you need to brush before you go?" She leaned in as if she were going to sniff Hal's breath. He recoiled. "That bad, eh?" She grinned smugly at him and he realized that she had accomplished her end game. With his retreat, he had moved out of her way. She plunged both hands into the soapy water and began to wash dishes with easy skill.

Hal quickly left the room. He climbed the stairs and passed a newly shaven and minty fresh Tom in the hallway to the bath. His heart was thudding again in his chest, moving borrowed blood sluggishly around his body and causing color to rise in his face and neck. Horrible wrenching guilt knotted in his stomach. Seeing Alex flit about the house, permanently wearing the dress for _their date_, was nearly unbearable. The entire situation was untenable for so many reasons.

Hal missed Annie. He missed her crazy earnestness and organization. He missed her Mona Lisa smiles and even her guerilla-attack-style displays of affection. He missed the easy comfort of the home she made and the feeling of being a…well, a brother, he supposed.

Alex was no replacement. Alex would have to go.

Alex didn't make Hal feel brotherly. Not at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Work at the café was familiar and vastly calming. Hal's heart stopped beating again which, contrary to human medical science, was a signal that all was well. And Tom had created an incredibly long and detailed list of tasks for Hal, written in his painstaking childish cursive.

Hal stood at the counter with every salt shaker in the cafe lined up neatly in front of him. Tom was vigorously scrubbing tabletops, but he noticed when Hal's actions idled.

"Awright?" Tom asked casually, his eyebrows drawn together, as Hal paused in his labors. "Need something else to do?"

"No, thank you." Hal responded. "Just woolgathering." He returned to refilling the salt shakers.

"Woolgathering." Tom repeated, making a hash of the word. "Y'okay?" He asked.

"Do you mean am I going to lose control of myself and rip out a customer's throat?" Hal asked, his voice mild.

Tom shrugged. "Guess so." He answered honestly.

Hal felt his lips quirking into a smile. My goodness, it felt like years since his muscles had felt relaxed enough to give a real smile. "No. I'm feeling surprisingly well." He reassured Tom. "The work is good for me."

"You'll tell me if you start to feel…you know…"Tom trailed off searching for the right word.

"Murderous?" Hal suggested.

"Yeah." Tom nodded.

"As long as no one comes in the door with a bleeding neck wound, I shall be right as rain." Hal enunciated the "t" in that cheerful posh tone he adopted from time to time. He was now at eye level with the counter, ensuring that there was an equal amount of salt in each shaker.

Tom pulled a face at him for the gory visual, then declared, "You've got the mustards to do next, mate", in that casually confident and in-charge tone that he adopted from time to time. Hal's eyes slid sideways to meet Tom's and the two men exchanged a small smile, comfortable with this routine.

The door jingled and Tom turned to say "Hiya" while Hal frowned moodily at the interruption and tapped one salt shaker to settle its contents.

"Whaddya want?" Tom asked with a friendly smile at the young woman who entered with an infant strapped to her in a Baby Bjorn.

"I'll have grilled cheese and a tea. White, please." The mother answered. Then she gave a little hop, bouncing the baby. It cooed up into her face.

Hal began to fix the sandwich as Tom punched keys on the register.

"It's two pound ten, ma'am." Tom said. "That's a nice baby you have there." He added in his rough but kind way.

"Thank you." The young mother beamed with pride. "She's just four months."

"We've got a girl about the same…" Tom started, paused. Then his face fell.

"You have a baby girl?" The customer prompted with a smile.

"Well, we had one." Tom amended glumly.

"I – I don't understand…" The customer said hesitantly, beginning to look worried.

Hal interrupted what was rapidly devolving into a very awkward and potentially damaging conversation. "He recently sent a foster daughter home to her parents, you see. Your order, madam." He slid a paper plate with the sandwich and her tea across the counter.

The woman smiled at Hal warily, as many humans did. The watchful ones and the mothers always sensed something dangerous about him, like a field mouse seeing the shadow of a hawk.

"Thank you." She said. She shook out some coins and clinked them into the tip jar on the counter with a warm and sympathetic smile for Tom. She smiled down into her daughter's face and sing-songed, "Thank you!" again, as if speaking for the infant. Young mothers always did this, Hal realized, and _had always_ done it. Five hundred years of cheerful mummies suddenly made him feel very ancient and very tired.

"You're welcome." Tom replied, having regained his conversational footing. Hal returned to his salt shakers. The customer took her paper plate and tea back out into the rare sunshine and Hal watched as the little mother and daughter made their way up the street at a leisurely pace.

"Women always make baby voices." Hal said before he realized he was going to do so.

"Yeah." Tom said. He smiled gently. "It's beautiful." He added.

Hal drew his eyebrows together. Tom was sometimes unpalatably drippy. "I mean, even when _I _was a child." Hal said, as if making an argument. "Even _before_ my time, they must've been doing that."

"It's nice though, eh?" Tom persisted.

"It's weird is what it is." Hal replied. He glanced at Tom, who looked set down. "But it's nice I suppose." Hal allowed. Tom smiled.

"You okay for a few minutes by yourself?" Tom said. "I'm going down the shop to get the chops for Alex, like she said."

"I'm fine." Hal said absently as he arranged the salt shakers into ruthless regiments on a tray.

"Do the mustards next." Tom reiterated as he removed his white kitchen apron and hung it on a door peg. "If you think you might hurt someone, go…"

"Into the back, inventory the cooler, and put out the closed sign till you're back." Hal finished the sentence. It was an oft-repeated rule and he knew it by heart.

Tom went out and Hal replaced the salt shakers on each table, retrieving the mustard bottles as he did so. The door jingled again and Hal swallowed hard before turning to face the newcomer with as friendly a smile as his face was capable. He knew smiling wasn't really his point of strength. It always looked macabre, he thought, and a bit toothy.

"May I help you?" He asked politely.

The customer, a man of middle age, heavy weight, and little hair, ordered a cheeseburger and a Coke with a Scottish accent and that same field mouse expression on his florid face. Hal set down the tray of salts and mustards and slipped behind the counter to ring up the purchase and fix the food.

"Hey." The man said hesitantly after Hal had begun cooking. "You, uh, know the way to a place called the Honolulu Heights Bed & Breakfast?"

Hal's head snapped around and he looked at the man keenly. "Why would you want to go there?" He asked. Then he mentally kicked himself at the silky, predatory tone of voice he couldn't prevent. He tried the friendly smile again, but the man looked spooked now, and Hal cut his losses. "I know it." Hal said carefully. "But I believe it's occupied by renters and no longer operates as a bed and breakfast."

"No, I know." The man said. "I'm looking for someone and I heard he lives there."

Hal felt his body go tense and he fought to maintain a pleasantly interested expression. "Oh? Who are you looking for?"

"Fella named Henry Yorke. Goes by Hal." The man said.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you, WhiteHare, for your review and corrections of "Americanisms" in the first two chapters. One was a genuine typo….'Scotch'! NOBODY says that, do they?...but the other was total ignorance. Am I correct in guessing that ignorance of Ready Brek is probably a good thing? Because ignorance of cream of wheat would definitely be a mercy. Anyway, thank you! I love the help because I hate to be out of character. I hope you'll keep reading and let me know when I say things like "Go fill out a form and put it in the trunk of the car next to the lawyer's cell phone". _ :)

BHBHBHBHBHBHBHBH

Hal froze. He hadn't been expecting this. In a fifty-fifty split of the current male residents at Honolulu Heights, Tom seemed the obvious candidate to have strange men looking for him. He'd recently – almost – made the news, after all, and it had been a hundred years or more since Henry Yorke had last crossed humanity's radar.

"Hal Yorke." The man repeated hopefully. "But I'm really looking for my daughter. My lass. Alex Mayhew, her name is. She went missing here almost seven weeks ago, while we were on holiday. My boys said this Yorke fella was some kind of boyfriend of hers. I'm in town for two days. I thought….might be she's got in touch…" he trailed off and his face grew a shade redder, he blinked rapidly, fighting tears, and cleared his throat roughly.

"I'm so sorry." Hal said and he meant it. Fervently. But he didn't know what to do now. Reveal his identity to the Mr. Mayhew? Chances were that if he didn't, the man would simply show up on their doorstep later and discover it for himself.

And there was Alex's unfinished business as well.

Hal felt a twinge of something out of control rise in his chest at that thought. Alex needed resolution. Hal needed Alex to have resolution.

Mr. Mayhew was watching Hal's reaction in confusion that was rapidly becoming mild suspicion. Hal's defenses reared up and his vampire senses blossomed. He smelled the blood and despair on the man at the counter. His mouth watered. He abruptly shoved Mayhew's order into a takeaway box and pushed it across the countertop. He said, "I beg your pardon.", in a strained-to-squeaky voice, and went purposefully into the cooler to inventory it. Closing the shop would have to wait for the moment. Tom would be back soon and then all would be well again.

Hal didn't anticipate that Alex's father might hesitantly follow him into the back of the cafe with concern wreathing his round face. "You alright, son?" He asked gently. "You look a little green there. Can I call someone for you?"

Hal felt panic and blood lust rise in his belly. He pressed himself against the back wall of the cooler. "Go." He ordered.

Mr. Mayhew's eyes widened. The mouse had spotted the hawk, so to speak, and Hal knew the primal satisfaction a hunter gets when his prey's veins sing with adrenaline and fear. "Please, go!" Hal repeated urgently.

Mr. Mayhew began to back from the doorway when the back door to the cafe burst inward.

Tom had arrived.

Tom was already reaching behind his back for one of his many concealed weapons when he took in the scene before him. Hal was backed against the far wall of the tiny walk-in cooler, white as a sheet, and a stranger was blocking the doorway into the front of the cafe.

"What's going on?" Tom asked abruptly, his hand not straying from the stake tucked into his back waistband.

"Your friend went a little green around the gills." Mr. Mayhew said, his eyes warily watching Hal now. "I just stepped back to see if he needed help. Sorry, I shouldn't be back here, eh?"

Tom stepped forward. Hal felt the clutch of panic begin to subside as the young werewolf positioned himself as a barrier between Hal and the human man. "He's recently been ill." Tom said, in that frank, honest way that seemed to engender trust.

"I see." Mr. Mayhew nodded. Tom edged the man into the front of the cafe and Hal heard their voices as they receded from him.

"Didya get what you need?" Tom asked.

"Oh, yes. Your friend fixed me my order here. I was just asking him if he knew a fella named Henry Yorke, goes by Hal?" Mr. Mayhew said.

"Hal Yorke?" Tom said, the surprise undisguised in his voice. Hal sometimes pitied and sometimes envied how naive Tom could be.

"Yes, he knows my daughter, Alex Mayhew. She's gone missing."

"Oh, yeah, Alex." Tom said. Hal's breath stopped.

"You know my lass?" The eagerness in Mr. Mayhew's voice caused guilt to crush the hunger for blood.

Hal pushed himself away from the cooler wall and took several deep breaths before joining the intense little party at the cafe counter.

"Yes, we know her." Hal said. "I'm Henry Yorke."

"You?" Mr. Mayhew blinked. He resized-up Hal. Hal felt the momentary, ridiculous humility of being judged as the suiter of a well-beloved daughter.

"I apologize about earlier. As my friend said, I've been ill recently and...it was a shock to hear that Alex has gone missing." Hal finished, the lie coming smoothly. "We had one date, must have been seven or so weeks ago, but she hasn't contacted me since." He tried to look abashed. "We didn't hit it off."

Mr. Mayhew looked puzzled. "Her brothers said she liked you."

Hal was embarrassed by this discussion, especially with Tom listening on, but firmly shook his head. "Two more mismatched people, you couldn't find." He said. There, at least, was the truth.

Mr. Mayhew nodded. "Aye. I could maybe see that." He said, but his face had fallen. "So, no word at all?"

"None." Hal said quickly.

"Thank you, then." Mr. Mayhew nodded sadly. "Sorry for the fright when I followed you back, son."

Hal almost laughed at the apology, well-meant but so misjudged. He nodded. "My apologies again that I wasn't more help."

The man nodded, and suddenly his big frame looked bent and broken. "If you hear from her, you'll give us a call?" He asked, taking a slip of paper from his trouser pocket and writing. "It's John Mayhew, I wrote that down too. I'm staying at the Seaside Inn. If you hear from Alex, tell her...tell her I just want to know she's safe."

Tom took the slip of paper and, with a furrowed brow, helped the man on his way. The shop door jingled closed behind him.

"What about Alex's unfinished business?" Tom said, flipping the sign to 'Closed' and turning his puzzled gaze onto Hal.

Hal sank into a booth and took several deep yoga breaths before responding. "What about staying under the radar?" He said.

"But..." Tom said.

"We'll take Alex to him. We don't know what her unfinished business is for certain." Hal said.

Tom looked mutinous.

"Look." Hal said firmly, standing up as he did so, "We can't have anything to do with Alex's disappearance. We can't give her father peace of mind. We can only try to help her resolve her mortal life and move on."

Tom didn't look happy, but he nodded resolutely.


	4. Chapter 4

A recount of events was delivered to Alex when Hal and Tom's arrived back at home, in slightly greater detail than Hal would've provided if Tom hadn't added commentary. It was accepted poorly. Alex's distress and temper upon hearing what occurred at the cafe caused such problems with the old B&B's circuitry that Tom's fried chop was delayed indefinitely while he sorted out the panel of switches in the back of the building. Hal eschewed being helpful and disappeared to his room alone.

He had just completed ninety-six press ups when Alex popped into his room like a vengeful spirit. Hal supposed that was accurate, judging by her scowl.

"I know you're capable of knocking." Hal said with a deep sigh as he levered himself up to stand. He reached immediately for his dressing gown to cover his bare chest.

"I don't want you to go anywhere near my Dad." Alex said, by way of greeting.

"I am delighted that we agree on that subject." Hal responded. "Tom will show you where he's staying." He turned, as if that resolved the matter, and took down a book from his shelves.

Alex remained.

"If you'll excuse me?" Hal said, indicating that she should go.

"No, I won't excuse you. You big...stupid...posh...vampire..._asshole!_" Alex sputtered. "I _liked_ you."

Hal blinked. This was a left turn. "I'm flattered." He offered, after a moment.

"And you just...you just...you might've eaten my dad!"

"It's not personal. I might eat anyone. Ever. Full stop." Hal said. "I don't want to hurt your father and I promise I'll stay clear of him."

"I thought, you know, once we could get past...everything...we might be friends." Alex said.

Tentative realization struck Hal. Could it be that, in spite of his past crimes against Alex and his near slip-up with her father today, the insane woman was grinding her ax for him because he wasn't being _nicer_ to her?

"Alex." He began.

"I mean…" Alex interrupted him. "It's _not personal_? I was murdered…_horribly…_because I fancied you. A_ bit._" She added pointedly. "They killed me like I was just a little life lesson for you. It's _very_ personal to me and it's…it's just bullshit that it doesn't mean anything to you!"

"Is that what you think?" Hal asked, dumbfounded. "You think I'm not wracked with guilt, every hour, every day, over every death I've caused?"

"So I'm just one among many?" Alex said in a subdued voice.

"You are one among…_very_ many." Hal said softly.

Alex's angry expression had faded, replaced with a desolate look that was somehow much worse.

"I didn't see it from your perspective. My death was important to me. But I'm just the victim that didn't go away, aren't I?" Alex muttered.

Hal felt he was treading on shaky ground, but tried to answer carefully. "I'm a vampire, Alex. And I'm one of the really bad sort. I've killed more people than I ever want to remember. So many of them that I _can't_ remember anymore. I'm sorry." He added, seeing her disgusted expression. He dropped his eyes to the floor and doggedly continued. "But, you I won't forget. After you stop literally haunting me, the memory of you will figuratively haunt me forever. I don't know what else you need me to do or say. I'll try my best to help you resolve what you need to so you can pass over…"

"Don't." Alex stopped him. She sighed. "I feel like a loony girlfriend or something, bitching at you."

"I don't know what to say to that." He said primly.

"You are _really_ odd." Alex snorted. She had deplorable manners. She fidgeted then added. "But, thanks for not hurting my dad. I know it's hard for you."

"That's very generous of you to say." Hal said.

"Look, the day you took my…body down from that cage-thing and, you know, I came back to find…" She trailed off awkwardly, not wanting to put voice to how she found him lapping congealed blood from the floor.

Hal gave a jerk of his head.

"It's like drugs, sort of, isn't it?" Alex said.

"I don't know if it's quite the same." Hal said. "You don't have to act like it's fine, Alex. I know I don't deserve forgiveness..."

"Well, you have it." Alex said blithely. "And I hope you choke on it."

Hal blinked. He had never been forgiven before. Not really. And Alex had forgiven him freely and easily.

He felt something like a hiccup form in his chest and when it bubbled out, it was laughter. He swallowed hard looking, horrified, to Alex for her reaction. She was laughing at him. Her laughter, when it wasn't snide, was charming. Clear and full and uninhibited.

"You need to lighten up." She said.

"No." Hal said darkly. "Really, I don't."

"Whatever. It's just…look, we're living together and we had this experience right from the start together that was sort of…" She made a gesture, lacing both hands together, trying to illustrate.

"Intimate?" Hal suggested.

Alex pulled a face at the word. "I guess." She allowed. "And now I feel really weird. We had this…_intimate_ thing. And I realize _you've_ had that experience with a lot of people. But you're my…first." She suddenly laughed at the absurdity of it. "I mean, well, you know what I mean."

Hal's heart gave one lurching thud and, without thinking about it, he rubbed a hand over his chest with a frown.

Alex stopped smiling and shifted from one booted foot to the other. "Right then." She finally said when she realized Hal wasn't going to say anything. "So…truce?" She asked.

"I – yes." Hal said.

She sighed. "And to think, if it all went the way it should you would've been just a holiday shag and I'd be home and alive."

Hal coughed slightly, embarrassed anew by her forthright speech. He said. "If it all went the way it should I would've been dead long before you were ever born."

Alex sighed again, this time rolling her eyes. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself." She said. The lights blinked on. "Oh! Tom's won the battle." Alex said. "Suppose you still want to risk my cooking?"

"You don't have to…" Hal began.

"Oh my god!" Alex snapped. "If you don't stop apologizing every other sentence we'll never get through this."

"Sorry." Hal said. Then, "Sorry," again and, finally, clapped his mouth shut with a frown as Alex's eyes twinkled at him.

"Well, then." She said. "Supper first and then you get to stay home and do the washing up while Tom brings me to see Dad. See? It might be your only chance for chops-a-la-Alex."

"Then I would hate to miss it." Hal said.

She pointed her cheeky, irreverent grin at him and vanished.

Hal stood alone. He slowly returned the book to the shelf, lining it up exactly with the others there. He tugged the sash of his dressing gown and resumed plank position on the floor. Then he realized he had lost count of his press ups. He took a deep breath and braced for the clawing panic, but it didn't come. He only smelled pork chops cooking.

Hal rolled to his back on the floor, covered his eyes with his bare arm, and wept in relief.


	5. Chapter 5

Hal had never thought of Annie as a particularly elegant or poised spirit. She was far too brash and modern to ever fit his idea of what a lady ought to be, an opinion that had been formed in a bygone era and never subsequently updated, but she was bloody Queen Victoria compared with Alex. For someone whose physical manifestation was pure ectoplasm, she could make an extraordinary amount of noise. He gritted his teeth and tried to block the rattles and slams with his pillow. It was no use. The vibrations of the sounds still got through.

The clock said 5:05 a.m. and Hal finally rose from his bed, put on his dressing gown over his pajamas and noiselessly descended into the darkened first floor of the house. The clanking and banging was coming from the kitchen and he warily stepped into the room to find a light on and Alex's lower half protruding from under the sink.

Her dress rode up around her slim, tight-clad legs as she fought with something in the depths of the cupboard.

"What in god's name are you doing?" Hal asked, not bothering to mask the irritation in his voice.

"Trying to get this bloody sink to void properly." Alex's voice was angry and tired. "Shove off."

"I can't _shove off_." Hal said. "I live here. Don't you think this is more of a daytime activity?"

Alex wriggled out from under the sink, her skirt rising even farther up her legs. Hal turned his back.

"Oh, keep your bonnet on. I'm decent." Alex said in disgust.

He turned back to her with a frown. "The question isn't whether _you_ are decent. It's whether the gentleman is decent." He corrected.

Alex scowled. She had been in an utterly black mood since seeing her father the night before. "Screw you, Emily Post." She suggested to him.

Hal's eyebrows rose and suddenly he couldn't contain a gasp of laughter. "Did you _hear _what you just said?" He asked.

Alex looked sullen but she snickered.

"Why _are_ you fixing the sink at this hour of the morning?" Hal asked.

"Because it's broken and it's not like I need sleep and I have to live here and I…just…want…it…to…be…" The last several words were broken by sad little hiccups as tears welled up and started to roll down her cheeks. She was a miserable little sight, sitting on the floor in her dress with an open-ended spanner and a pink nose. Hal frowned, uncertain of what to do. She wiped at her face, sniffling. "Go away." She said.

Hal was relieved. He turned to go.

"No! Don't go." Alex stopped him. He turned back to her, watching as she flopped ungracefully to her feet.

"Is everything all right?" Tom had joined them now. His eyebrows drawn together over sleepy eyes, he looked at Alex's teary face and Hal's frown and made the logical conclusion. "Did you make Alex cry?" He said to Hal.

"What?" Hal said, offended.

"He didn't do anything." Alex admitted grumpily. Her appearance was rumpled, but no longer weepy.

Tom looked back and forth between the vampire and ghost. "Okay." He said. "What's all this noise, then?"

"Alex was just mending our sink." Hal said. "She feels it doesn't void properly."

"It doesn't." Alex said.

"At five in the morning?" Tom asked, scratching his head.

"I think you should go put some clothes on." Alex said to Tom. "And I'll make us some coffee."

Tom looked down at his boxer briefs and socks and, with a sigh, thumped back upstairs.

"I have seen him naked as much as any of my brothers. It's…it's really astonishing how often he runs around undressed." Alex said in a bewildered tone.

"Oh, you don't have to tell me." Hal said. "I commiserate."

"I didn't say it was a bad thing." Alex said. "It's just so bloody distracting."

Hal looked at her in alarm. She gave him a sly smile that said "Gotcha" all over it. He frowned.

"Lemon." She said. He gave an exasperated grunt.

Tom returned, clad strangely but decently in the lower half of a pair of men's flannel pajamas and an orange flowered shirt that had once belonged to George Sands. "If you want the sink fixed, just say." He said as soon as he entered the room.

"I don't want the sink fixed." Alex said. She slung the spanner sulkily down. It clunked loudly and skittered across the linoleum floor.

Both men stared at her.

"Stop looking at me like I'm crazy." She ordered.

"Stop acting crazy." Tom said. Alex's mouth dropped open at that.

"Tom." Hal said quietly, warning in his voice.

The light flickered in the kitchen, electricity hummed then calmed as Alex took a deep breath.

"I've had a very bad night." She said.

"Okay." Tom said. "No need to take it out on the plumbing. What's wrong?"

"What _isn't_ wrong?" Alex asked, her nose turning pink again. "I'm dead! I'm a ghost! I just moved in with a vampire and a werewolf. It's just…bonkers! And my dad couldn't see me. He couldn't see me. He just sat there. And he's so sad and alone. And _I'm_ alone. And…and…he thinks I've run off but I haven't and I can't…I can't…"

"Alex." Hal said sharply, interrupting her stream-of-consciousness descent into tears.

"I miss my family." She finished in a small voice. "And I didn't cross over when I saw my dad."

"Missing your family and being on your own is hard." Tom said simply, with a nod.

"Thank you." Alex said.

Hal, determining that Tom had a better handle on dealing with a temperamental, weepy, DIY-ing ghost, stirred himself and took down the tin of coffee from the cupboard. Alex puffed across the room and took the tin from him.

"I _said_ I'd make it." She said, shaking the tin at him.

"Then make it." Hal replied, his voice rising.

"Why do you two keep fighting about stupid stuff?" Tom said. "You still fancy each other or something?"

Both parties turned to him with identical expressions of mixed embarrassment and outrage.

"_What?_" Hal squeaked out, sounding hysterically posh and stiff, even in his own ears.

"It's okay if you do. Just stop squabbling at all hours. Unlike you lot, I need to sleep." Tom said.

There was a long pause.

"It was the noise…of the plumbing…" Hal finally managed.

"Yeah. This time." Tom said.

"I don't fancy him. How could I?" Alex said. "Sorry." She said to Hal.

"I – no, not at all." Hal muttered. "That's fine."

"And he never fancied me to start with." Alex shrugged.

"Well." Hal interjected.

Alex and Tom both looked to him with surprise.

"How about that coffee?" Hal suggested.

"You have your coffee. I'm going back to bed." Tom said. "This is all getting sort of...like those soaps Annie liked to watch. I'm off. You two sort yourselves out. And be quiet about it." Then he gave them a stern look, turned with as much dignity as a man in an orange flowered shirt can manage, and went upstairs.

Alex fiddled with the coffee tin for a moment as the kitchen filled with thick, uncomfortable silence.

"Would you open this?" She finally said, holding the tin out to Hal. "These little things are still sort of…slippery. Hard to grip." She explained.

Hal took the tin reflexively and stared at it. "You don't have to make me coffee." He said in a low voice.

"I'm going to fucking make you coffee and you're going to drink it and not act like a _fucking martyr _while you do!" Alex exploded in rage, her voice rising in volume with each word. The light bulb above their heads shattered. "Fuck!" She added as the room plunged into darkness. A tiny bit of dawn in the kitchen windows kept the room in twilight.

"QUIET!" Tom's voice, ringing with the authority he sometimes possessed, echoed from the upper reaches of the house.

Hal set the tin of coffee on the counter without opening it. "I don't want any coffee." He said softly. He held up a hand when Alex would've laid into him again. "And you don't want to make me coffee."

"I –" Alex protested. Then she stopped, stumped.

"You're frightened. No." He said, when she would've protested. "It's fine. I was too. I lashed out too."

Alex shuffled her feet, keeping her eyes on the toes of her boots. "Yeah?"

"Yes." Hal said. "I made a lot of noise too. Especially with those I wanted to impress the most."

Alex scoffed, she met his kind, level gaze with a sullen look.

"Do you think…and I wouldn't suggest it, believe me, if it didn't seem possible…that _I _might have something to do with your unfinished business?" Hal said.

"What?" Alex's eyes widened incredulously. "You? That's thinking pretty highly of yourself, isn't it?"

"Unfinished business doesn't have to be important or noble. In my limited experience, it's more often something like forgetting to mail a letter than saving the world." Hal said. "Did you forget to mail a letter, by any chance?"

Alex gave a huff of laughter. "No." She said.

"Ah." Hal said. There was a moment of charged silence.

"Oh, what's the worst that could happen?" Alex finally muttered. She reached out and took hold of Hal's dressing gown lapels, stood on her toes, and laid her cool, soft lips across his.


	6. Chapter 6

The contact was brief, just a brush of mouths before Hal jerked back, putting a foot of space in between them again. The room remained dim. No ghostly door appeared.

"Christ." Alex said heavily, covering her eyes with one hand. "Really? Now I've got to live with _that_?"

"I beg your pardon!" Hal said indignantly. "I was _not_ suggesting that you – you _kiss_ me."

"Shit." Alex said, covering her face with both hands now.

Hal ran an agitated hand over his mouth, where his skin still tingled from the brief contact with her lips. "I was suggesting that you seem to want to…gain my attention because we haven't gotten friendly? Perhaps, when we first met, you felt…"

"This is _so _embarrassing." Alex interrupted from behind her hands. "And it's obviously not the right way to resolve my unfinished business." She lowered her hands but kept them clasped under her chin.

"Isn't it?" Hal said with relief evident in his voice. "Oh, good."

"You kiss me." Alex said.

"What!" Hal exclaimed.

"Yes, maybe I _was_ sort of sore that I pretty much threw myself at you and you didn't…you know." Alex admitted. "So?" She prompted.

"I don't…" Hal said.

"Just do it. We're already here and already mortified." Alex prompted again. She crossed her arms across her chest.

"Well…I don't just go around…" Hal sputtered to a halt. He sighed and set his face grimly. "Right, then." He stepped up closer to her. Even in the pale, watery light he could see the fine grain of her smooth skin, every eyelash, every fleck of gold in her hostile eyes. "Put your arms at your sides." He said.

Alex sighed, dropped her arms, and stared at him challengingly as he tried to determine how best to approach the situation. "Well?" She demanded.

"This would be simpler if you would _try_ to act like a lady." Hal said.

"Sweet talker." Alex rolled her eyes. "Go on then."

Hal had no experience with modern women so he took a deep breath and reasoned that he would just have to do this the only way he knew how. He reached forward and took hold of both of her slender hands. She jerked with surprise at the sweetness in his touch and her eyes grew wary.

He drew her forward one step, keeping his eyes on hers, and released one of her hands to gently hold her waist. She stilled in his arms and her face lost its hostile expression, transforming into wide-eyed softness. He bent his head and kissed her.

It had been a lifetime since Hal had kissed a woman, and ten lifetimes since a kiss had been anything other than a prelude to death. Alex's mouth was plush and cool, firmer and more substantial than he would've guessed for a ghost. When she shifted beneath the gentle pressure of his lips, he began to pull away, but the small hand wound with his own at their sides tightened and, instead, she tilted her face and deepened the kiss.

For several shocking moments, Hal lost himself in the tug of her mouth and the sensation of her soft female form pressed against him from chest to knee. His arms tightened and he was aware only of Alex.

An odd sensation spread through his limbs. It was as if he had been rigid with cold and was finally warm. His muscles relaxed and his chest expanded in the first uninhibited breath he had taken in decades. A sudden bright light in the room pricked behind his eyelids and he drew away blinking, catching his breath and hearing the unfamiliar thunder of his own heartbeat in his ears. Alex opened her eyes, too. They were dilated and dazed.

She blinked up at him owlishly.

"Your door." He said. His voice was husky.

She turned, pulling away from his loosened embrace, to stare at the bright light and a red wood door that now stood where the kitchen sink ought to be.

"Oh." She said. She looked at him, her chest still rising and falling in quick – and entirely unnecessary – pants for breath. "Is that it, then?" She asked.

"Yes." Hal replied.

She took a nervous step toward the door. "So that goes to, like, heaven?"

Hal smiled softly. "I hope so." He said.

She hesitated.

"Go." Hal said. "I've only seen this a few times, but I don't think there's much time."

"I have to say goodbye to Tom." Alex said.

The door started to grow transparent, as if it were on a dimmer switch, and the kitchen sink was now visible superimposed over it.

"Alex." Hal said urgently. "You could be stuck here forever if you don't go."

"But…" Alex began.

"It's not an argument." Hal said, his tone gentle.

Alex looked at him. Her expression was unreadable. She glanced at the door and walked toward it, placing her hand on the lever-mechanism and throwing it open. The door became solid again, the kitchen sink vanished, and light poured from the aperture into the kitchen.

"Awright, now I can't fall back to slee…" Tom reentered the kitchen and fell silent in mid-sentence when he saw the ghostly door. "Alex, you're going?" He said, his voice pitching upward.

"Not without saying goodbye." She said, smiling softly at him. She left the brilliant white light of the door frame and lightly flew into Tom's arms. He caught her up in a tight hug.

"I'll miss you." Alex said to him, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

Hal stood silently, his hands clasped loosely behind his back. He felt a lump of emotion form in his throat and he swallowed against it.

"Yeah, I'll miss you too." Tom said, patting her solidly on the back as they ended their farewell.

Alex glanced at Hal and seemed to hesitate. "Should I hug you as well?" She asked frankly.

"I think we have…adequately expressed…what it is that we…feel…" Hal replied haltingly, his eyes darting to Tom and back to Alex meaningfully.

Alex narrowed her eyes at him and he immediately distrusted the saucy sparkle that began to glow inside them. "_Adequately_?" She said sweetly.

"Ehm. Spectacularly?" Hal amended hopefully, resisting the urge to back away as she closed the distance between them.

Tom had grown suspicious. "What was your unfinished business?" He questioned.

"Shall I tell him?" Alex asked Hal cheekily.

Hal refused to be baited by this ungainly, unsuitable…beautiful girl.

"She was waiting for a goodnight kiss." Hal said. He took his gaze from her face and shifted it to Tom.

Tom looked very pleased. Hal would have said even smug, if Tom's honest face were capable of such an expression.

"So you staying?" He asked Alex.

"Tom." Hal said warningly. "This may be her only chance."

Tom shrugged. "Annie stayed."

"Alex isn't Annie." Hal pointed out unnecessarily. "Besides, you must…want to be going. Right?" He said to her as he nodded toward the bright doorway.

Alex shrugged. She looked at the door. If she felt it drawing her in, as Hal had witnessed in the past, she gave no physical indication of it.

"Alex, this is important." Hal said urgently. "If you stay…if you stay…then you may be here _always_. Do you understand what that means? Forever is a long time."

"You would know." She said absently, still staring at her door.

"Tom will grow old. God knows _I'm_ not reliable. You might be left on your own to fade away." Hal said. He spoke as one with hard experience.

"Or I might spend eternity haunting you." She replied.

"Do you _want_ to spend eternity haunting me?" Hal said, taken aback.

"I want to spend _today_ haunting you." Alex replied. "And maybe tomorrow after that. And I _will_ miss Tom..."

"Alex!" Tom said urgently. "Your door."

It was fading now. Quickly.

"Go." Hal said.

"If you want to." Added Tom.

"I think I may have just gotten some more unfinished business." Alex said. With her words, the door vanished.

"Oh, god." Hal muttered, wiping a hand over his eyes. "What now?"

"I think you've got a girlfriend, mate." Tom said with a grin.

"Excuse me. I think I need to be alone." Hal said and got out of the kitchen at a speed that only a very motivated vampire can attain.


	7. Chapter 7

Alex was standing in front of his bedroom door when he arrived there. Well…_standing_. More like slouching against it.

"Excuse me." Hal said.

"I'm not staying because I want to be your girlfriend." She said without preamble.

"Excellent." Hal responded crossly. "Now if you'll just excuse me, please."

"But I'm not opposed to being convinced." She said with a prideful little lift of her chin.

Hal gave an terse sigh. "Fine." He grabbed her shoulders, kissed her briskly on the cheek, and amended. "Excuse me, please,…Darling_._" Then whisked her out of his path and slammed the door behind him.

Hal stood on the other side of his bedroom door and immediately divested himself of his dressing gown and pajama shirt, pressing his hands over his chest frantically. His heart felt as if it were going to beat out of his chest. He was anxious. This was not at all normal behavior for a vampire's heart. His normally chilly pale skin had been hot, cold, and clammy in the kitchen.

A quick glance at the clock confirmed that it wasn't quite six in the morning. Rest was obviously out of the question, so Hal opted for exercise. The stationary bicycle and maybe twelve million press ups and he might feel normal again. He climbed onto the bicycle still wearing what remained of his pajamas and set a hard pace.

But the physical work did nothing to calm his agitated brain.

Hal was attracted to Alex. Obviously. Fine.

Alex was attracted to Hal. Clearly. Also fine.

Alex was not in any danger from Hal as a vampire. She was causing some significant lust, but no bloodlust. Fine.

Actually…good.

Except…Hal was experiencing some type of vampire version of a heart attack with increasing frequency when he interacted with her.

Not so fine.

He sighed and gave up the workout, sliding off the stationary bike and retrieving the top of his pajamas. He stuck his arms through the sleeves and opened the door to his room. He was not surprised to find Alex still leaning in the hallway.

"We need to talk." He said darkly.

Alex levered herself away from the doorframe and walked past him into his room. He closed the door behind her and did up his shirt buttons.

She stopped at the foot of his bed and turned to him with her arms crossed loosely over her chest. They sized each other up for a long moment before Hal began.

"This is complicated." He said.

"Isn't everything with you?" Alex asked. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Can we not have sarcasm or modern idioms for the moment, please?" Hal said wearily. "I'm trying my best."

Alex's face softened and she nodded.

"Thank you." Hal said. Then, "I want you."

"You can't say things like that and not expect me to say that you're sounding quite creepy again." Alex sighed, but her tone wasn't unkind.

"I may have mentioned that I'm not, shall we say, up-to-date with the times when it comes to…ehm, courtship rituals."

"Christ." Alex muttered uncomfortably.

"Yes." Hal nodded. He took a deep breath. "So if I may be plain with you?"

"Please." Alex said.

"The facts are: you are a disembodied spirit. I am a relentlessly violent addict…_not_ disembodied…and we don't get on with each other." Hal said. "Because you are very very irritating."

Alex laughed.

"You're no picnic yourself." She said frankly.

"Point granted." Hal said. "But putting that all aside, I still want you."

Alex slowly smiled at him. "Alright." She said. "Good."

Hal cleared his throat and paused before proceeding. "The problem is that we are clearly attracted to one another in a physical sense, but otherwise we have difficulty….well…enjoying one another's company?"

Alex's eyebrows drew together in thought. "Hm." She muttered.

"You don't like me any more than I like you." Hal said reasonably. "But it seems that…"

"We still want to shag each other?" Alex offered glibly.

Hal sighed at the phrase, but nodded. "That sums it up." He agreed.

"Okay, so…" Alex shrugged. "What now?"

"Nothing." Hal said shortly.

"What?" Alex exclaimed.

"It's impossible." Hal said evenly. "You don't have a body and…well, that's it. You don't have a body."

"But I could feel you." Alex said. "Before…in the kitchen."

"Yes. It's odd." Hal tapped his fingertips together in sequence at his side, but remained very still otherwise. "I didn't expect you to be quite so…solid."

Alex chuckled. "I can't believe you just called me _solid_."

Hal felt his lips twitch. "It was very smooth of me." He agreed, his eyes growing a bit shy at his own humor.

"Smooth, you are not." Alex said with a teasing smile. "But you _are_ a little bit sexy."

Hal laughed, rubbing a hand over his chest. "Thank you." He said. He felt his body growing warm again.

"Whew. I'm getting all flushed here." Alex said nervously. She fluttered a hand by her face.

"What?" Hal froze.

"You know…I'm all flushed." Alex said, looking at him curiously.

"Have you…?" Hal stopped. An insane thought struck him. "Do you have a heartbeat?" He asked.

Alex blinked. "Yeah." She said.

"Do I make your heart beat faster?" Hal said intensely.

"Oh my god." Alex huffed an embarrassed laugh, going a bit pink and not meeting his eyes.

"Jesus." Hal said, pressing his hand over his chest. "It's _you_."

Alex frowned in confusion. "What is?"

"I've been having these symptoms. My heart pounding, feverishness, blood racing. Oh. God." Hal placed the heels of both his hands against his forehead. "Blood racing! It's _your_ blood!"

Alex's eyebrows shot up. "Do you mean that…you can sometimes feel what I feel?"

"I must be."

"How does that work?" She asked.

"How would _I_ know?" Hal asked in return.

She shrugged. "You have more experience with this sort of thing."

"I have _no_ experience with _this _sort of thing." Hal growled.

"Well, do you know someone who might?" Alex asked, looking a trifle alarmed.

"Oh, mercy." Hal said with a wry laugh. "We just blew them all up."

"Well, then." Alex said. "Shit."

"Yes." Hal met her consternated gaze with his own. "Shit." He agreed.


	8. Chapter 8

"Regus might know." Hal said as he scrubbed the already-clean countertop at the café late that day. "He's been around nearly as long I have and he's been more…consistent in his allegiances."

"Yeah?" Tom responded absently as he cleaned the grease dogs under the fryers.

"But I wouldn't know how to get in touch with him without…jeopardizing…" Hal broke off, glancing back at Tom. "Are you listening to anything I've been saying?"

"No, mate." Tom said cheerfully. "You been talking about it, like, nonstop since we got here."

Hal frowned at Tom. He mentally reviewed their day's conversations and realized there was truth to what Tom said. "I apologize." He said stiffly.

"What's to figure out anyway?" Tom said, screwing up his face. "She's a ghost."

"She's _solid_." Hal said.

"To you." Tom added.

"Yes! Precisely!" Hal said as if it made his point. "And I know it must have _something_ to do with, ehm, her blood."

"That's in your body." Tom added.

"Right." Hal said tersely.

"Maybe she can't be a ghost to her own blood or whatever." Tom said, a little incoherently. The point was real.

"She can't inhabit her own body so…because of the blood…_I'm_ her body?" Hal said, with a doubtful grimace on his face. "Well….it would be convenient, anyway."

"Convenient?" Tom questioned. His eyebrows drew together and then relaxed as he understood. "Oh, for sex, you mean?"

Hal rolled his eyes heavenward. The coarseness of Tom's speech sometimes made his skin itch. "Yes, Tom, for sex."

"McNair said…" Tom began, but Hal cut him off.

"Yes. McNair was absolutely right to say." He said firmly. "For _you_. The bloom is considerably off the rose for me."

"But…" Tom protested, his eyebrows knitting again.

"Tom, I don't want you to imagine that Alex and I are planning to live happily ever after together. First of all, the _living_ aspect has already been resolved for both of us. And 'happily' couldn't describe me on my own on my best day, let alone the prospect of a goddamned eternity cohabitating with that woman." Hal said viciously.

"But you fancy her, though." Tom said. He was frowning at Hal.

"I…" Hal stopped. "I suppose, like most things in my life, she is an unhealthy fascination."

"That's disrespectful, mate." Tom said, his voice going a bit hard and cold.

Hal glanced into his young friend's eyes and nodded abruptly. "Quite right." He conceded. "I beg your pardon."

"You ought to woo her." Tom suggested.

"Woo?" Hal hooted with laughter. "My god! And they say _I'm _an anachronism."

"Whatever." Tom shrugged. "I'just think…maybe treat her nice. She's a nice lady."

Hal paused. "Quite right." He repeated at a murmur.

"You're sort of rubbish with women, aren't you?" Tom teased, his eyes lighting when he teased Hal.

"I must be if I'm taking advice from you." Hal retorted with a sly smile. "Twenty-one year old virgin, literally raised by wolves."

"Oi!" Tom said indignantly.

Hal held up both his hands in concession with a toothy grin. "I _am_ wildly out of practice. The last time my relations with women had nothing to do with blood and death, I was not much older than you are today."

Tom grinned back at Hal, unhurt by the teasing. "How old were you?" He said curiously.

"When…?"

"You know." Tom prompted.

"My first time?" Hal clarified. He saw now that they were having a bloke conversation and he felt a strange sliver of pride about it. "I was…young. Very young." He said.

"How young?" Tom asked, frowning at the vagueness.

"Well, thirteen or so, I should think." Hal said, pursing his mouth and frowning with the effort of recalling the ancient history of his humanity. "I was born around 1490."

"You don't know your birthday?" Tom looked properly shocked.

"Funny thing: keeping track of a prostitute's brat wasn't high on the Church's list of priorities when it came to recording births." Hal said. There was no bitterness in his tone.

Tom looked saddened by this. Then he brightened. "We could have your birthday whenever we want." He said with a grin.

Hal snorted. "You people have a bizarre relationship with birthdays." He said, lumping modern humanity into one sweeping generalization. "Don't do that." He added when Tom began to set ketchups onto the counter he'd just sterilized. "I just cleaned that."

Tom rolled his eyes and moved the bottles to the other side of the counter. "So you're just going to go to bed with Alex?"

"Now I'm not comfortable talking about this anymore." Hal said primly, wiping the counter yet again with a small ferocious scowl on his face. "It's probably all nothing. Alex and I don't even _like_ each other. The logistics are…mind bending. I don't want to put myself in a situation that is out of my control."

"Yeah." Tom said with a nod. "Probably best to leave it."

"I can't believe I would even consider it." Hal went on. "My celibate years have always been the most stable."

Tom shook his head in wonderment. "Does my head in sometimes, you being so old."

Hal looked up with a small smile playing around his lips. "Does my head in too." He admitted, the phrase sounding stiff in his posh accent. He looked around the empty café. "Want to close up early?" he asked.

Tom looked wary. "Why?" he hedged.

Hal rolled his eyes. "I thought we were beyond that incident. I'm just bored…and hungry." He added darkly. "I think Alex is trying to win homemaker of the year. I saw a cookbook opened to the quiches on the kitchen table earlier."

"Quiches?" Tom said doubtfully.

"You'll like it." Hal assured him. "Come on, before some latecomer shows up." He flipped the sign to 'Closed' and began closing shades.

Tom hesitated, and then joined Hal in closing the café down. Hal's taste buds didn't run to quiche. That fact Tom knew for certain. He suspected they were going home early…just to see Alex.

Tom smiled. They were going to be a proper family.


	9. Chapter 9

**I am earning my 'M' rating even more with this chapter. Swearing and sex. As promised.**

* * *

Alex met them at the door with a smile, which Hal took to be a good sign, and she scolded Tom for his muddy boots. Tom seemed to enjoy this sort of treatment, or at least take it in a stride. She ordered Tom through the back garden to leave his boots outside and glanced at Hal's spotless balmorals. She gave him a tentative, flirtatious smile.

Hal felt his heart pound nervously and, realizing that _Alex_ was experiencing nerves, gave her a bashful smile in return.

"I made a quiche." Alex said. Her voice pitched a little higher than usual.

"I love quiche." Hal replied. "And Tom has always wanted to try it."

Alex grinned. "What a bouncer." She said. It was clear she was pleased with Hal's white lie. "You don't like anything that isn't served arterially and Tom has, I'm almost sure, never heard of quiche."

"But isn't my way nicer?" Hal asked, wrinkling his nose at her humorously. She laughed. He felt his skin go hot. "I need to change my clothes." He said abruptly.

"Need a hand?" Alex purred at him with a teasing look, knowing she had him against the ropes.

"Ha!" Hal said, his voice breaking slightly. "Excuse me." He made his way up the stairs in double-time.

He had only a few minutes to himself to collect his wits and change into something that didn't smell of fry oil before he cautiously made his way back down the stairs, listening to ensure he heard Tom's voice in the kitchen before emerging.

"It's like a breakfast pie." Alex was telling Tom when Hal entered the kitchen. "It's got eggs and cheese and bits of bacon in it."

"And a hell of a lot of butter." Hal added.

Tom looked at the browned top of the quiche and nodded, impressed. "Sounds good." He said. "Are we eating now?"

"If you're hungry." Alex replied. She was obviously eager to have someone taste her handiwork because she immediately sliced an enormous piece for Tom and put it onto a plate. He sat at the kitchen table and her eyes lit with anticipation as he tried a bite.

"Oh, my god." Tom said through his mouthful. "Hal, you gotta try this, mate."

Alex gave Hal a triumphant look and put another piece onto a plate for him. He sat and dutifully put a bite into his mouth. It was squishy, a little too cheesy, and wholly amateurish. It also wasn't human blood. He swallowed it. "It's delicious. You've outdone yourself." He said to Alex. She beamed.

In this respect, she was exactly like Annie. She liked to watch them enjoy something she'd prepared. Hal felt that was a lovely and feminine thing, he smiled at her and put another unsatisfying bite in his mouth.

"Any new ideas about our…situation?" Alex asked, gesturing between Hal and herself.

"Tom had a funny idea, which I feel has some merit." Hal said, after swallowing and patting his lips with a napkin. "Ghosts can't possess their own bodies."

"Wait…I can _possess_ someone?" Alex asked, sounding a bit too delighted.

"In certain circumstances, yes." Hal said, frowning at her. "The point is, given the circumstance that I…drank your blood…" he muttered the words quickly, "it may be that you can't pass through _me_, thereby…"

"Explaining why I'm solid to you." Alex finished. "Why isn't this happening all the time, then?"

Hal blinked at her. "Ghosts are rare." he said. "I've never met one who was killed by a vampire before, but I'll wager, if there were such a ghost, they didn't move in with the vampire afterwards or, ehm…make physical contact."

Alex nodded, screwing up her face in thought. "I could see that." She agreed.

"How long does the blood last?" Tom asked suddenly, surfacing for air from his quiche.

"Last?" Hal asked.

"I mean, how long will it stay in you?" Tom clarified.

"I…it's never come up before." Hal said honestly. "I assume it just stays…like anything you eat."

Tom stuck his lower lip out thoughtfully then put another bite of quiche into his mouth. "Huh." He said.

"So, I might be solid to you…forever?" Alex suggested.

Hal shrugged. "It's all speculation." he said. He glanced up at Alex and found her expression unreadable. Then he felt her reaction in his own body. "Ahem." He gave an embarrassed cough and glanced again. She was smirking.

"What's going on?" Tom asked, scraping the last bite of quiche from his plate.

"Tom, you ought to rinse your boots off with the garden hose before it gets dark." Alex commanded in that female tone that brooked no argument. "I don't know how you got them so dirty. Hal is clean and he walked home with you. And water the potted plants."

"He takes shortcuts." Hal supplied, enjoying Tom's mournful expression at having chores.

Tom rose and lumbered toward the rear of the house, his stockinged feet padded like paws on the linoleum.

"So," Alex said. "I guess you're full of my blood, feeling what I feel…it makes what we're about to do seem pretty masturbatory."

Hal sputtered around a bite of his food. "Alex, look. I've been thinking…"

"Oh, shut up." Alex said gently. "Who are you trying to convince?"

Hal scowled. "What if I hurt you?" he asked curtly.

"I'm already dead." Alex said mildly.

"Is the prospect _really_ that appealing?" Hal asked, finally being brutally honest.

"Let's just say you're the only man I can still have and I'm the only woman it's _safe_ for you to have." Alex shrugged.

"Romantic." Hal said in disgust.

"I don't want romance, Hal, I want a shag." Alex said bluntly. "Didn't you just ever…need a fuck to clear your head?"

"I…" Hal felt the blood pool low in his abdomen and his eyes shot to hers. "I don't think it's wise…for my condition…" he said weakly. "Are you…?"

"So you can feel that too?" Alex gave him a Cheshire grin.

"God, yes." Hal said with a shaky laugh.

"This might be useful." Alex said. "How about this?" She stroked her own collarbone, drifted her fingertips over one breast. Hal sucked in a breath, his eyes widening as her arousal sang through his veins.

"Alex." He said shakily. He dropped his napkin onto his mostly-finished slice of quiche and stood, adjusting his rapidly-growing erection in his trousers with a pointed look at her. "Stop it." He said in a low, rough voice. He intended to leave, but found himself drawn closer to her instead.

"Stop it for me." Alex told him.

"You really want this? Want me?" Hal asked.

"If you can get the job done." Alex said with a challenging look.

"Oh." Hal said in a silky, confident voice. "I can get the job done."

Alex gave a breathless scoff that ended in a gasp when Hal yanked her against his chest and took her mouth in a near-bruising kiss. "Mm!" she said. It sounded like protest, but she clung to him, digging her fingers into the front of his shirt.

"Upstairs." Hal growled against her lips.

"Yes." Alex said and, before he could make a move in that direction, she rent-a-ghosted both of them into his bedroom. "I like non-living objects." She said before dragging his head down and kissing him. Breathless moments passed as they battled each other for control of the kiss then broke apart, gasping.

Hal tugged his jumper over his head. "Do those tights come off?" he asked, pulling her back into his arms and pressing stinging little kisses along her throat, reveling in the lack of desire to tear into her jugular.

"I – yes." Alex said, shoving her jacket down her arms and dropping it on the floor. "Oh, god, Hal." she abruptly stopped, staring up into his face with a little line of concern between her pretty eyebrows. His eyes were black, his fangs extended.

"This is what I am." he said, breathing through his nose rapidly and blinking. His eyes switched from black to hazel to black. "I can't put it away when I'm like this."

"It's fine." Alex said. She swallowed hard. "It's sexy." She added bravely, leaning in to feather a kiss at the corner of his still-fanged mouth.

Hal gave a sharp laugh of relief and dragged one strap of her green dress off, pressing a kiss to her pale shoulder. "Thank god for pop culture vampires." He said as he succeeded in pulling her dress down to her waist. "Thank god." He said again and this time it was a breathless prayer. He bent and kissed the softness that swelled over the lacy, pale pink cups of her bra.

"You too." Alex sighed, tugging at the white undershirt he still wore until it was stuffed under his armpits and he had to release her to pull it over his head. "Oh." She said, eying his torso with female appreciation. He grinned, grateful for every one of the twenty million, two hundred fourteen thousand sit ups and press up he had completed over the last fifty five years for a reason other than that they kept him sane and safe. She grinned back and he suddenly felt the terrible urgency and tension melt out of him.

The pace slowed, gentled. He bent and kissed her lazily on the lips and his hands stroked the smooth, cold skin of her back. She sighed and burrowed closer to him, the lace of her bra scraping his chest. He felt a low, insistent coil start in his belly and he smiled against her lips. It was _her _arousal he was feeling.

Without breaking their kiss, Hal slid his hands to her waist and pushed the stretchy green dress over the curve of her hips. It dropped to the floor in a soft pool at her feet. Alex's fingers tangled in his hair, skimmed over his back, leaving trails of tingly ice and causing his muscles to shudder. She curled her sleek, cool tongue into his mouth, laving his fangs. He groaned and hooked his thumbs at the waist of her tights, kneeling as he skimmed them down her hips and legs along with her lacy pink panties. His kissed the little swell of her belly and she fisted one small hand in his hair, gasping as one of his hands slid up the inside of her leg and cupped the soft swirl of dark curls at the apex of her thighs, one clever finger tracing the seam of her sex and finding her slick and ready. "Hmmm." He hummed in satisfaction against her belly.

Alex felt her knees trembling. "On the bed." She whispered urgently. From his kneeling position, Hal straightened, banding strong arms around her hips and waist and lifting her. He turned and tumbled her backward across his bedspread and followed her down, coming over her and kissing her mouth. His hands caressed every bit of her skin that he could reach as he tugged loose the fastening of her bra and the buttons of his trousers.

Alex's nipples pebbled against the cool, hard plane of Hal's chest. Her head spun giddily from the hunger of his kisses. When he drew back to breathe and stare at her with the soft hazel eyes she recognized, she lay spread beneath him, her hips rocking slightly, teasing her weeping core with the thick head of his cock. She saw his arrogant male expression and she knew she must look stunned and breathless and out-of-control from lust

Alex opened her mouth to say something, to distance herself from the vulnerability she felt, and was silenced by his lips. "Shh." He muttered into her mouth. "I like you."

With those strange, tender words, he slid into her body.


	10. Chapter 10

Hal could _really_ get the job done, Alex reflected many hours later when darkness had crept over the house and he had fallen into a brief snooze beside her under his bedcovers. Alex had never experienced anything like it with the four fumbling guys she'd allowed into her bed before him. Orgasms had always been a mental game for her, with Alex trying to keep her focus and get there. Hal simply overwhelmed her, like a hero out of a bodice-ripper novel, making it impossible to focus on anything _but_ the pleasure. It was as if he were making up for more than half a century of celibacy in one night.

For now, his face was relaxed in slumber and he looked boyish and oddly innocent. One pale, muscled arm was tucked firmly around her ribs, holding her against his chest. She could just rent-a-ghost away, but couldn't think of a reason why she would want to when experience had already taught her that Hal would wake shortly and begin making love to her all over again.

_Making love?_

"Get a grip, girl." Alex muttered to herself.

"Talking to yourself is one of the first signs of mental illness." Hal said in a sleep-roughened voice, his lips brushing her shoulder in the shape of a smile. She chuckled soundlessly and turned to him.

"You're awake." She said.

"Mmm. I've been watching you stare at me." Hal said with a teasing smile. He lifted his head and lazily kissed the nearest bit of her he could reach, her ear.

"Maybe I've gone a bit daft from sex overload." Alex teased in reply, reaching beneath the covers to stroke his already-growing shaft. He sucked in a breath, his eyes going black.

"Daft women are my favorite." He said with laughter on his face, at odds with the glittering predatory eyes and fangs.

"That's good, because we're the only kind you'll ever land." Alex retorted gently.

"You think so?" Hal growled with playful menace, rolling over suddenly and pinning her beneath him. "I have _nothing _to offer a sane woman?" He challenged.

"Maybe the first…eleven orgasms…were just flukes?" Alex bubbled with laughter as he peppered her face with kisses.

"Eleven?" Hal asked, drawing back. His grin was wide and boyish and fanged. "Which ones aren't you counting?"

Alex gave a peal of merry laughter that dissolved into a low wail when he abruptly sank back into her core. She said his name breathlessly into his ear and he lifted his head to press his lips against hers as he lazily rolled his hips, driving her up, up, up, until she shuddered in climax beneath him. He came immediately, his hips jerking as he collapsed heavily on top of her. One bizarre effect of Hal sharing her physical responses was simultaneous orgasms. Every time.

"Oh, Christ." Alex sighed fuzzily in the afterglow. "This is the best sex I've ever had."

Hal's chest rumbled with a deep laugh and he levered himself up to look at her. "Is that so?" he asked, his expression openly pleased and his eyes back to soft dark hazel.

"Don't even tell me about all the great sex you've had." Alex said, putting a finger over his lips preemptively. "I appreciate your experience, _believe me_, but I can't listen to five hundred years of bedpost notches without losing _some_ self-respect."

Hal kissed the finger on his lips. "A gentleman would never kiss and tell." He said, a tiny note of his stiff, posh manners creeping into his voice.

Alex sighed, sliding her fingertips through his ruffled brown hair. "Of course not." She said.

He withdrew from her and sat back on his heels, dragging back the covers as he did so. He looked down at her naked body. "But I'd be tempted to boast about you." He said in that velvety tone that made her shiver.

She smiled. "Well, that's nice." She said.

"You like nice? I can be nice." Hal said. He sniffed. "But, I really need to shower first."

Alex giggled and rolled off the bed. Her ghostly body simply reset itself to the exact state of tidiness and cleanliness she was in when she had died. Hal, on the other hand, did smell a bit like marathon sex.

He drew on a pair of boxer briefs and made the attempt to hand her clothes to her. They were too ghostly when separated from her body and slipped right through his fingers. Alex picked them up herself, stepped into her panties, and hooked her bra.

"I s'pose Tom must know exactly what we've been up to." Alex said, suddenly looking embarrassed.

"He's undoubtedly asleep by now." Hal said, glancing at the clock that read just past three in the morning. "But he's going to be blushing over the breakfast table." He gave her a small smile.

Alex giggled. She pulled on her dress and padded over to him, standing on bare tiptoes to kiss him softly on the lips. His eyes registered shy surprise and he busied himself with finding and tidying his clothes away.

"I'm going to check that he's turned off the lights." Alex said, creating a task for herself to stave off some of the little flutter of awkwardness she felt.

"Alex." Hal stopped her before she could disappear. He cleared his throat. "This was…very nice. Thank you." He frowned. "That sounded wrong." he added.

Alex chuckled. "I'll give you a break on pointing out the creepy-talk." she said. "In hopes that you've gone a bit daft from sex overload too."

"That must be it." Hal's lips twitched into a small smile.

"Poor Hal. I've worn you out." Alex said, her eyes lighting with a teasing twinkle.

Hal's smile spread into a sexy grin. "No." he said in a low velvety tone. "You haven't worn me out at all."

Alex's eye widened at the implication and her gaze dropped to the front of his trousers. "Well." She said with an impressed twist of her smiling lips. "I knew I liked something about that repressed vibe you've got going on. You're an animal."

"I'm a vampire." Hal said darkly.

"You're a vampire who's not going to make it to the shower." She said, her smile sly.

"I am." Hal assured her. "I'm not going alone." He moved so quickly, she didn't have time to blink. He hooked a strong arm around her waist and hoisted her, breathlessly giggling, over his shoulder. One hand gripped her buttocks and he gave her a tiny sharp swat when she wriggled.

"Oh." Alex said. "I think spanking might work for me."

"Really?" Hal sounded intrigued. "Oh, yes, I see." He added as Alex's arousal burned through his body. "Well, well, well."

He carried her out into the corridor, draped over his shoulder, and down the hallway to the bath.


	11. Chapter 11

Much later, when the rosy fingers of dawn were peeping through the windows of Honolulu Heights, Alex lay relaxed against Hal's side as he dozed. She wasn't entirely sure how much, if any, sleep a vampire required but Hal seemed content to catnap.

_He'd called her darling again while they'd showered._ A little voice in Alex's head supplied the information. She ignored it and gave Hal a squeeze around his middle. He made an odd purring sound and cuddled her in return. Her whole body went hot and needy and Hal's spine stiffened when he felt her response in his own body.

"I like cuddlers." Alex said, with a teasing note, against his chest. She knew he was awake now. "Who knew you could cuddle so well?"

Hal dropped a kiss onto the top of her head and pulled back to look into her face. They exchanged hesitant smiles. "I've never thought of myself as…cuddly." He said the word as if it were the first time he had _ever_ said it.

"You're kidding." Alex said teasingly. She was pretty desperate to alleviate the tension and uncertainty she felt about their new arrangement. "What did you think of yourself as?"

"Untrusting." Hal said immediately. Rather than his usual indictment of himself, he simply looked thoughtful. "It's morning." He added, eying her naked body. Rather than begin another bout of lovemaking as she expected, he drew his duvet up around her shoulders as if to keep her warm.

"I don't get cold." Alex said, grinning at the sweetness of the gesture.

Hal's frame moved beneath her as he shrugged. "Neither do I, really." He said. "Blankets sometimes…just…feel nice." The phrase seemed stark, as if it were an admission of vulnerability. He watched her with quiet, sober eyes as if he were waiting for something.

"Maybe I should start breakfast." Alex said with a self-conscious smile.

Hal glanced at his clock. "Not just yet." He said quietly. "Stay a bit."

Alex frowned, wondering at his mood, but gladly snuggled back down against his cool skin. An hour passed while she felt the rise and fall of his breath and heard the soft stirring of the world outside waking up. "This feels strange." She whispered into the stillness of the room.

Hal didn't reply for a long moment. She felt the twist of uncertainty and nerves as she waited and, when he gently squeezed her with one arm, she knew he was feeling her anxiety too. "It doesn't have to be a battle." He murmured quietly.

"Yesterday I was sure I didn't like you." Alex said. She felt, rather than heard, Hal's chuckle as it vibrated in his chest.

"And now?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's embarrassing." Alex admitted.

"I'm not a good prospect." Hal said bluntly. "You know that, I hope."

"I know." She acknowledged with a sigh. She traced a pattern on his chest with her fingers.

Her fingers tickled a bit, leaving little frissons of ice on his skin. Hal covered the ghostly fingers with his own and brought her fingertips to his lips, kissing them softly and then returning them to his chest. He felt her self-consciousness, her slight arousal at the motion, and the edgy ball of nerves in her stomach. "You're anxious." He said.

Alex stiffened at his side. "No." she denied.

"I suppose a treaty needs to be struck." Hal said, tightening his arm when she began to draw away from him. He bent his head to look into her guarded eyes. "Alex, I've never…" he sighed. "Been in a relationship before."

"Is that what this is?" Alex said. Hal could feel his heart flutter expectantly, _her_ heart.

Hal cleared his throat. "Yes." he said, as if that were decided. He was far from sure himself, but he felt her response in his own body. She relaxed, felt reassured. When they were touching like this, Hal felt he could almost read her mind.

"Right." She said.

"Sex was never my brand of sin." Hal said. He directed his eyes to the ceiling, examining the water stained popcorn texture as if it would reveal some shape or secret if he only looked hard enough. "Alex, I don't want you to think of me as repressed or vulnerable or…pitiful. It's dangerous to underestimate how deep…that is…"

Alex jostled him slightly with her shoulder. "Spit it out." She said gently. She watched his jaw flex and his throat work as he swallowed.

"I'm not a wounded bird. A relationship won't make me better. Deep down inside, underneath the routines and regimens…Alex, I'm a monster." Hal said. The words were almost soundless. "I have tortured and killed enough to fill a football stadium…times over. Sex wasn't how I got my thrills, but I used it to…to torture, to demoralize, to humiliate…"

"Why are you telling me this?" Alex said, interrupting him abruptly with a trace of panic and disgust in her voice.

"So you won't form a wrong impression." Hal said roughly. He turned to her, his eyes dark and empty. "I've killed a thousand girls like you."

Alex recoiled. Hal felt the sick satisfaction of the inevitable when she scrambled off the bed and hastily began to dress. "You're saying this to put me off." She said as she dragged on her panties and bra. "Getting the rejection over with?"

Hal sat up and watched her with a bleak expression. "I'm saying this because you need to know that I'll probably hurt you someday. And I'm so, so talented at hurting."

Alex scowled at him. He frowned back at her. It was as if somehow the light of day sent them back to circling one another and snarling. Alex rolled her eyes at him and hunted under the bed for her tights. "Go start breakfast." She finally said to him.

"I have my sit ups to do." Hal muttered.

"Well, I can't get into these tights with you watching me." Alex said primly, her chin lifting.

Hal gave her a look of disbelief.

"Because I'm cross with you and I can't bear the thought of hopping around…" Alex clarified. "Seriously. Go away. Putting on tights isn't cute."

Hal looked mystified, but he rose from the bed and pulled his dressing gown on. He approached her with hesitation, then bent and brushed his lips across her forehead. "It doesn't have to be a battle." He repeated.

"I'm not the one dying to air my…bloody laundry." Alex muttered, her lips still turned downwards.

Hal gave a terse sigh. "I'll fix breakfast." He said, pressing a kiss to her sulky mouth. He tightened his dressing gown sash, slipped his feet into a pair of mules that reminded Alex weirdly of her granddad, and scuffed off down the hallway.

Alex hopped and wiggled her way back into her tights and rent-a-ghosted to the kitchen to find Hal frowning over his raisins again. He glanced up at her when she arrived. "There's one left over." He said.

Alex looked into the canister. Sure enough, one squashed raisin stuck to the side. She saw that Hal had already added them to the plain hot cereal so she whisked the container out of his hands and tossed it, lone raisin and all, into the bin. "Solution." She said, grinning at him cheekily.

Hal snorted. He looked rumpled and moody. Alex sighed and stood in front of him, taking one of his hands. "Look, since we're, uh, in a relationship and all, I think it's nice that you're trying to look out for me." Hal gave her a guarded look. "But, it's just a likely that I'll do something that hurts you." She continued. "So, maybe you don't try to put me off by throwing your past up at me and I won't put you off by being a…what was that one weird thing you called me when you were stuck in that chair? Hoyden?"

Hal gave a short bark of laughter and his stance relaxed. He looked down at their joined hands and he gave her fingers a little squeeze.

Alex gave him an encouraging smile in return. "Now go put some trousers on before I decide to get creative with you on that kitchen table."

Hal felt his heart thump nervously when she acted so boldly flippant. "Don't be so nervous." He murmured, all-too-aware of the humor of that statement coming from his mouth.

Alex's face sobered. "Stop it." She said, twisting her shoulders uncomfortably.

"I can't stop feeling what you're feeling." Hal said. "But I'm glad I do. Because it helps me know when you're afraid, when you're nervous, when you're joking…when you're _really_ thinking of sex on the kitchen table…" the last was said in a velvety tone, but his eyes were twinkling teasingly.

"Mornin'." Tom's voice announced his presence from the doorway. As predicted, he was blushing to the tips of his ears. "Uh..." He continued. Stopped.

"Breakfast!" Alex said cheerfully, taking the cereal bowls and setting them on the table. "Hal?"

"Yes?" Hal replied automatically.

"Trousers." Alex said and gave him a gentle shove toward the door. She gave Tom a big, motherly smile and said. "Good morning, Tom. Tea or coffee?"

Tom darted a glance between Alex and Hal, then stirred from the transition of the doorway to the table. Hal gave Alex a glance, ensuring she had everything in hand, before returning upstairs to wash and dress.

Hal's morning routine was beyond salvaging, so he simply got ready as quickly as possible. He felt a curious and ironic anxiety that he wasn't feeling any anxiety over the disruption to his ordered life. He pushed the thought away, writing it off as the aftermath of an entire night of incredibly gratifying sex with an enthusiastic partner. Hal wasn't foolish enough to think a steady sexual relationship could replace his routines and daily tasks entirely, but, casting his mind back to the night before, he couldn't think of any instant when the bloodlust overtook him. He was…distracted from it.

Alex popped unannounced into his bedroom as he buttoned his shirt. "I've just basically had a birds-and-bees talk with Tom." She announced. She said the words heavily and darkly, as if they were a complaint, but she was smiling.

"Really?" Hal wasn't sure what this mood was, so he proceeded carefully. "I thought Tom understood the basics…"

Alex was laughing now. "Oh, he does." She said. "I got halfway through it before he managed to stop me. Christ, he was blushing so much I thought he'd turn purple."

Hal was now silently shaking with laughter.

"Funny to you, sure!" Alex said in mock complaint. "You didn't say the word 'vagina' to him."

Hal made a high-pitched sound, his whole frame shaking as he laughed harder. His laughter was just hiccups of breath without sound, but Alex's was whole and merry. She walked to him and surprised him with a squeeze around his middle. He stiffened automatically, then returned the embrace by sliding an arm around her shoulders and tightening it. "It's been a very long time since…" he said.

"Mm?" Alex said, her tousled brown head tucked under his chin.

"Since I've held anyone." Hal finished.

Alex made a sound of satisfaction at that statement and drew her head back to look up and give him a pleased female smile. "Better get moving or you'll be late." She said. It was her tone of voice that was cheerfully bossy. Here was a woman who ordered men about as a matter of course.

"I'll be down in a moment." He assured her. "Just have to tidy up."

Alex stepped back and surveyed the unmade bed and few items of Hal's clothing that were draped over a chair. She nodded, understanding his need to put things in order, and vanished. Hal made his bed and picked up his clothing.

When he was finished he looked over his room. He took a deep breath, feeling his tight chest expand.

Hal missed Leo and he missed Pearl. They were his family and his life.

He missed Annie Sawyer. She took him in. She showed him love and kindness when he was desperate, alone, and unworthy of either.

Hal heard renewed conversation in the kitchen drifting up to him and one of Tom's loud, honest laughs. He smiled to himself and headed downstairs toward the warm, bright kitchen. The wrongness of mornings had somehow been righted.

Because Tom was here.

And Alex stayed.

And Hal was home.

The End.


End file.
